My grip on the tray tightened. Heat filled my chest, rising like the start of a shift that I could not allow. Aria’s voice growled low inside me. Let me out, she said. He would not speak of killing us if he knew who stood before him.
“No,” I whispered under my breath. “Not yet.”
Thorne paced before the desk, his boots loud on the stone floor. “You think she is your mate. That much was easy to see. But nature is cruel, Kael. The moon sometimes binds us to our own doom. Do not let lust blind you to duty. You have a kingdom to protect.”
I could feel Kael’s gaze burn into Thorne’s back before he replied. “You say this as though I am new to sacrifice.”
“This is not sacrifice. It is survival.”
Kael’s chair scraped slightly as he rose. I dared not look up, but I could sense his presence movi
